Excellent, excellent points, Rand. Cannibalization is incredibly easy to fall victim to yet even seemingly professional SEO's can be at fault for that. Great points in your post script about a more meaningful and sustainable way to add fresh content annually without having to start from scratch.

Very timely post. Although it may seem (and this is only perception) that links are losing value, I agree with your point that QUALITY links are increasing in value. Good content that is well marketed will gain editorial links from credible sources.

As SE's move to deliver better and more accurate SERP's, personalization can be argued to be a main point of emphasis for them. How do SEO's conquer that? Well, see Rand so thoughtfully explain the example of the Dublin hotel and how the user experience was enhance. FTW!

Excellent WBF, Rand. This substantiates why the cost of being a pro-member is far outweighed by the benefits. Personally, I think this is a great tool in competitor analysis - lately I've been seeing people all of a sudden dominating the SERPs (well, maybe not dominating but showing in top 5 for most results) and their link profile really not justifying their position at all. This 'Fresh' tool has long been needed.

Erica, excellent WBF. Too many people try too hard to be somebody that they're not, so your tip about finding their 'voice' really resonates with how I view it. Also, your tip about reading out loud would benefit the majority of writers by forcing them to see the 'small' details that have a big impact. Mahalo!

Excellent WBF, Rand. It definitely helps to see structure laid out this clearly. I know I get templated-emails all the time, but the only ones that I can say that I respond are the ones that actually seem genuine and written specifically for me as the audience.

Excellent video!!! As algorithms continue to evolve, more and more is going to be up on an SEO's list of duties - ultimately, clients want higher ranking and that's the only objective worth noting. Educating the public/potential clients on all that is involved in growing organically then becomes critical in maintaining a SEO's value proposition.

One of the best analytical posts I've read on SEOMoz. However, the conclusion was a bit misleading. Becoming an 'authority' in it of itself doesn't lead to higher SERP placement, otherwise #6 would have fared better, at least according to the metrics you shared. Still, one of the best posts on SEOMoz. Kudos. June 15, 2012

As most things in life, if the intent is good (i.e. providing a good user experience) and best practices are implemented, then algorithmic changes are going to do more good than harm. With that said, emphasize efforts on making a quality site that will best answer a user's querries - the rest will fall in place naturally.

It's really shifting to content creation. Read a post about over SEO and how important content and the user experience are becoming http://next.inman.com/2012/04/google-evolves-are-you-ready/ April 06, 2012

Very interesting data. What I found most surprising is the gender difference. I get contacted quite a bit asking to guest blog, yet off the top of my head I would say that I have approved more posts by men than by women. Not sure how prejudice would play off on this, but perhaps there is industry relevance at play.

What a great read on a Sunday. Personally, trying to rank in a highly competitive field as real estate (specially being geo-centered on an area with very worthy competitors, such as Maui), I see many of those ahead of my site obviously using black hat tactics (i.e. paying for links), but I've been building my trust online by contributing to the leading national blogs in my industry. At the end of the day, they can buy their links, I will build earn my authority. Rand's post only makes my resolve to remain white hat more absolute.

Great post, Rand. I can attest to it from personal experience, it seems as though it's an impossible task to overtake the big players but with hard work/determination, it CAN be done. I haven't quite caught up to the big boys in my market, but I feel as though the principles that I've applied to my site (particularly the link-building) are superior to those employed by my competitors. So far it has been almost 9 months since my site's inception (mauirealestatesearch), but I'm quietly optimistic that with time my site will overtake them (only time will tell).

Interesting experiment. What is the ratio of tweets vs. links so far? It'd seem much more people would tweet it than actually link it due to the ease of tweeting. Looking forward to the results (specially when it can be measured short-term versus long-term).

I would interpret 'Advanced SEO' to be more on the technical side of the industry (i.e. Rand's posts). I wouldn't associate 'advanced' with secret squirrel ideas/concepts as those 'secrets' are more likely than not black hat and not industry-leading. All in all, thought-provoking post.

The title really caught my attention and the content reeled me in, Dragon. Being relatively new to SEO, I steer away from black hat not just because of the moral issues, but more importantly, the risk/reward equation (ultimately, I'd rather have slow but permanent progress than fast but short-lived progress). I also don't see the black-hatters, who 'game' the system, as being better than white-hatters, but rather making different choices which will be rewarded/penalized at some point. I know firsthand that measurable/signifcant progress on the SERPs can take a long time and it will make even the most seasoned SEO question whether they should change their tactics, but well, patience is usually rewarded tenfold.

GREAT post. It's too easy to become distracted by data and forget that, ultimately, the goal is to better serve customers (not the spiders). The best linking you will get is from genuine interaction with other industry leaders.

Excellent post, Joanna. Most business owners simply don't go that far into assigning a value to each visit and hence give it an arbitrary number value devoid of factual evidence. As always, enjoyed SEOmoz's blog.

Being in real estate, standing out among a sea of competitors who all look the same in the eyes of consumers, it can be a daunting challenge. However, being genuine and establishing authority online by contributing to the industry leaders has helped me tremendously. Thanks for posting such useful SEO information.

Rand, great points. I'm not an SEO professionally, but rather out of necessity (the SEO we had hired before did an incredibly poor job, so I took it upon myself to learn the basics). Nevertheless, for a beginner, it is easy to over-SEO a site. I know firsthand that initially I did too much which may have seem spammy (i.e. including KW on url's even if not necessary). Anyway, this type of post helps us refocus on our ultimate objective. Mahalo.

Did something happen to the video? It keeps stopping halway through it.

Anyway, back on topic, great info. Although some of my competitors buy links (I had contacted a couple of sites giving those links to see if I could get on the blogroll and was told those stops are paid for, if I wanted it I'd have to pay $XXX a month), I won't go down that road. The possibility of being penalized is deterrent enough.